Brazil (1944)

Academy Awards, USA 1945

Nominee Oscar	Best Sound, Recording Daniel J. Bloomberg (Republic SSD)
	Best Music, Original Song Ary Barroso (music) Ned Washington (lyrics) For the song "Rio de Janeiro".
	Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Walter Scharf

Republic Pictures
Directed by Joseph Santley
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Olive Films)

Virginia Bruce is a novelist visiting Brazil, whose previous book had insulted all Latin men. As a result, she is snubbed by just about everyone, except Tito Guizar, who immediately falls in love with her. The only problem is that he is a popular singer, so he pretends to have a twin brother who Bruce hires as a tour guide. So they go around looking at the sights, hang out in a swanky nightclub watching the floors shows, and visit a country mansion to meet "real Brazilians". Meanwhile, his manager, Edward Everett Horton, provides comic relief by constantly demanding a new song for an overzealous American publisher. He finally writes one, which promptly wins the grand prize during the Carnival finale. Weak attempt at an MGM-style musical by little Republic, filled with Latin stereotypes, a bland leading man and terrible comic relief from the annoying Horton. Roy Rogers makes an appearance during the Carnival scenes, for no reason whatsoever.